Events

Monthly Meetings Our regular meetings are held the second Wednesday of each month at 6:30 PM. These meetings are open to anyone that is interested, free of charge, club membership not required. This is when we have the tasting for the Style of the Month contest. Each month we have a Beer Exchange: bring some bottled homebrew, usually about a six pack, and exchange it bottle for bottle with other members’ homebrew to bring home and enjoy at your leisure. Also feel free to bring some beer to share with the club – almost everyone brings a bottle or growler of either homebrew or interesting commercial beer to share. Please check the calendar for the location each month.

Last Wednesday Club An informal social gathering at one of the local breweries for conversation and camaraderie (and beer, of course), usually at 6:30 PM on the last Wednesday of most months. Open to anyone that is interested, free of charge, club membership not required. See the calendar for the location of the next one.

Music Listening / Brew Tasting About once every three months we hold an Music Listening/Beer Tasting event. Anyone interested in brewing for the event is assigned a piece of music to interpret with a batch of homebrew. There are no rules regarding style, process, or ingredients. Past music selections have included Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Shpongle’s Tales of the Inexpressible, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, Brewer’s Choice wildcard selection, Tom Waits, Bob Marley, and Neo Folk. These events are open to anyone that is interested, free of charge, club membership not required. See the calendar for the next event.

Big Brew Days Approximately monthly we get together, usually at a member’s house, sometimes at a local brewery or other event, to brew together. Bring your brewing equipment and brew a batch of homebrew, get together with another member to share equipment and split a batch, or just come by to help or hang out and drink some beer. This is a great time to learn brewing techniques and get suggestions and feedback. There is often a pot luck meal. This is a very informal and unstructured event. There is usually quite a lot of beer to share – in fact Big Brew Days are our primary bottle sharing events and a great way to sample or share interesting commercial beers or some great homebrew. Big Brew Days are open to anyone that is interested, free of charge, club membership not required. See the calendar for the next Big Brew Day.

Annual Brewing Contest Every spring we have an open style brewing competition judged by local professional brewers. Submissions are due at the May club meeting. Each submitted beer should be submitted in four unlabeled bottles. One bottle will be judged collectively by the club, usually at next Big Brew Day. The other three bottles will be sent to the brewers at Blackrocks, The Vierling, Cognition, Jasper Ridge, and Barrel & Beam for judging. There will be prizes donated by club members and local breweries to be awarded to the top winning beers. Brewers of the top 5 beers in the competition have an opportunity to brew their beer at one of the participating local breweries. This competition is open to Marquette Homebrewers members in good standing only.

Spring Fermentation CelebrationThe second to last Saturday in March at Lakeview Arena in Marquette is our annual beer, wine, cider, mead, kombucha, and cheese festival. The ticket price includes 15 beer/wine/mead/cider samples, and a commemorative pint glass. Michigan breweries, wineries, cideries, meaderies, and kombucheries will provide the fermented beverage selection. Extra tickets for beer or food can be purchased at the festival. A diverse menu of quality food will be available from several local vendors. Live music provided by local bands. All proceeds will be donated to local charitable organizations. Tickets are limited.